Wasn’t tape-trading also “piracy?”

Many people today condemn file-sharing as “piracy,” especially those who are deeper entrenched in the media cartel (obviously Lars, among others). From a metalhead’s perspective, the glaring hypocrisy is how so many old-school metal bands made a name for themselves via the 1980’s tape-trading scene!

When cassette tapes became widely available in the 80’s, many bands mass-copied their EP’s or demos onto them and passed them around for fans to listen (yes, for free). It became so popular that you could find classifieds in the back of metal magazines offering to trade tapes from all over the world. A fan in the UK would send you a tape of a local band, and you would send them one from your area.

Simply put: It was the best way for underground bands to be heard worldwide before the Internet.

“Back in my day…”

Today, file-sharing is the ultimate evolution of tape-trading. Why wouldn’t you want as many people as possible to hear and love your music? Make it an underground movement!

Of course, the biggest complaint about file-sharing is…

File-sharing steals money from bands

Under a traditional label deal, the artist only keeps about 10% from album sales, and that money still gets entirely siphoned away to pay off the advance from the label. Even record deals in the “good ol’ days” rarely were a smart financial decision for artists. You’re better off giving your music away for free to maximize your fan base, then selling merch and special editions of your albums to make the moolah.

But let’s play devil’s advocate and pretend that file-sharing was completely abolished (a best-case scenario for the RIAA today). Two things would happen:

1.) It would kill underground music.

Without file-sharing, the pop establishment (including the Hot Topic/Warped Tour machine) would be in greater control of what you can listen to. You hate them now? It would be a hundred times worse! With file-sharing, you create a more democratized scene of exchanging and discovering new music. That’s what tape-trading was all about — it was a collective “fuck you” to the labels, declaring “we listen to what the fuck we want!”

2.) Bands would still go broke.

With the traditional establishment in firm control of much of the music scene, bands would have to pay big money to marketers or upper-echelon publicists to get their material out among the rest of the music approved by the overruling “gate keepers.” Unless, of course, tape-trading makes a comeback. (but then that technically would be stealing!)

If you watched VH1’s recent Metal Evolutionseries, you might remember how a little band called Iron Maiden got their tape in the hands of British DJ Neal Kay, who played it regularly at his Soundhouse metal club in London — and the rest is history! Likewise, manynon-metalartists today are blowing up by giving away their music for free and making legions of fans in the process.

So give your shit away for free, and tell your fans to share it too. It’s the best way to be heard!

I’m all for MP3 file-sharing—only if it’s for the intended purpose of getting the name of an undiscovered band out there. I think MP3’s are a great tool for that. But, people that have hundreds of CD-R’s in their pad, and not one single copy of pressed material—that really says a lot. I respect the artist for what they contribute. Which means I actually buy the music. Making the album in the studio isn’t free; getting them pressed certainly isn’t free either. I want to enjoy the album with my whole-heart.

Way back in 2005 or so, I got into a debate with this guy who said that file sharing would destroy the underground metal scene. It’s seven years later, and the metal scene is more vibrant now than it ever was back in the 80’s. For an underground metal band, obscurity is a far bigger problem than piracy. Even if people were buying albums for ten thousand dollars each, if no one has heard of you, then you’re not gonna make any money. The way I see it, file sharing is a form of free publicity. If someone downloads your album and they like it, they’ll be more inclined to go to one of your shows and buy your merch.

just to play devils advocate, iron maiden gave their tape to neil kay. tape trading is totally different than torrent sites because it took a physical copy to make a copy. Now 1 virtual copy can create millions of copies with a click of a button. bands were bigger back in the day, now they draw 14 people at shows unless they’re old school acts that were made popular by the work and support of their evil corporate labels.

We’re not denying nor overlooking how file-sharing can take one copy and give it to millions of people with one upload. But, we’re saying that instead of complaining about and resisting the advent of such technology, metal bands should embrace it and figure out ways to make it work for them.

Artists in the hip-hop and electronic genres are making a killing right now maximizing their fan base via free downloads and then subsequently selling out tours across the country. By eliminating the purchase barrier, you open yourself up to more people who potentially could become die-hard fans, and then buy your merch, concert tickets, etc.

Think about it: Would you rather have 10,000 fans buy your album or 100,000 fans download it for free? The latter would give you a much more promising touring and merch market!

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